Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and new Wolves forward Jonathan Kuminga spoke to the media for nearly 20 minutes during Kuminga’s introductory press conference on Thursday.
Here’s everything Connelly and Kuminga said, from the forward’s free agent recruitment process to his fit within the current roster:
**On the process that led Kuminga to Minnesota..**
JK: Good morning everybody. I think just the process, it was up and down. Just looking back, I think I would say it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made, just looking at the roster, looking at the young group of guys they have and just seeing what they’ve done in the past and the the things they’re trying to accomplish going forward. I think I fit well with this culture and just want to help win as many games as we can and be in the right situation. I think just looking back, that was one of the things that me and my group and my team, as we sat down and started to figure out where do we want to go, why here, I think the choice was we’re trying to win. We’re trying to help win. I think that’s why I made this decision.
**On where his game fits within the roster …**
JK: I think my game, my mentality, pretty much everything fits well with the group. No matter what it is, they can put me wherever, run the floor, screen, defend, play fast, whatever it is, I feel like I can come in and be one of our best defenders. I think I fit pretty well.
**On the team’s efforts to recruit Kuminga …**
TC: Just being transparent and honest. The guy, in five years all he’s seen is winning so he has high expectations to be on a team that’s going to win, as do we. He’s familiar with us and has played against us in the playoffs. In his situation, a guy who has accomplished so much, he’s only 23 years old and his best basketball is in front of him. You want to sell, but you don’t want to recruit. I think just, sitting down, we were lucky that his agent’s a guy that we’ve known forever and we’ve had a bunch of players with. So that was super helpful. Aaron (Turner) was great. And then just sitting down with him, myself and Alonze Gee went down and hung out with these guys and said what we felt we could do, potentially, together. Then it was a quiet couple of weeks. We weren’t too positive or optimistic. Just kind of being ourselves and telling him how we envisioned our team helping him and how we envisioned him helping our team. Just try to be honest and as clear and transparent as possible.
**On why Kuminga believes he fits well within the Wolves culture …**
JK: I think just if you look back at my game and my mentality, I watched a couple times. I played against them so many times. I think they built this winning culture that they have been building for so long. They’re still a young group of guys. Ant is still young. Melo’s still young. Jaden, Rudy and them. Just seeing what to strive for every single day, patient with the game, accept that mentality. They want to win. I think I have a couple years in now. I know what winning is. I know what it takes to win. And I think just me including myself with those guys, I think we have a chance of going far. I think just me bringing my mentality to what they have already, I think we can do such a great job out here.
**On conversations Kuminga has had with coach Chris Finch and the front office about his role …**
JK: We haven’t spoke as much. Just a little bit that we spoke about they want me to come here and be myself, rebound, defend at the highest level. I think those two will open the rest of it. I just think focusing on those two, rebound and defend, that will help the team and it will help me.
**On Kuminga and LaMelo Ball working together …**
TC: Jonathan, in a league of elite athletes, he’s as elite as it gets. He instantly becomes one of our best cutters. He’s got an innate feel for getting open. He brings championship DNA. He’s done things we’re trying to aspire to do. And LaMelo’s one of the best playmakers in the league. When you combine his ability to get open and his well-timed cuts, certainly in transition there’s not many players better than Jonathan in our league, I think they can help each other and certainly he can help all of us with just what he’s seeing. It’s really crazy how young he is, but he’s seen so much in the NBA already. We’re going to learn a lot from him. I think it’s going to be awesome to see him help us and, hopefully, we can help him a bit as well.
**On defense being Minnesota’s identity …**
JK: I just think me coming here, especially on the defensive side, I feel like I consider myself one of the best defenders. I think being around one of the best defenders in the league in Jaden, I think I can learn so much more. I think Ant is a good defender. Then we got Rudy. Just watching those guys, that can help me in so many ways, certain things that I don’t know on defense. Ayo is one of the best defenders. Just being around those type of guys pretty much every day and going at them every single day, that’s going to help me even learn certain things that I didn’t know about defense before. Just looking back at the guys they have here and trying to include myself. I feel like they’re the type of people that are going to push me and help me every single day, mostly on the defensive side. I feel like if we have a great defense, the offense will come in time and it will make our offense easier. I think the main focus, I spoke to Finch, is just help us play defense and the rest, I think, will open up by itself. I think it’s going to be fun.
**On what excites Kuminga about playing with LaMelo Ball …**
JK: I think his ability of passing the ball. I was watching him workout yesterday, I was watching him do certain things, and just the way he passed the ball, it’s incredible. I’ve played with so many point guards in my career, but I’ve never played with somebody that could pass as good as LaMelo. I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited.
**On what excites Kuminga about playing with Rudy Gobert …**
JK: I’ll say I can be myself on defense. I can be more aggressive, because I know I have a shot blocker. He’s done it so many times, we can’t sit here and argue. He’s done it so many times. He’s won so many Defensive Player of the Years. It’s something where I’m going to learn how he plays and he’s going to learn how I guard, so I think once we all step on the floor together, things are going to be way easier for him and for me, because we’re going to communicate on how to guard certain dudes and I feel like he can see so much that I don’t see, and he can guide me. So I think it’s going to be fun, and I can’t wait to learn from him.
**On the Timberwolves filling the power forward gap on their roster …**
TC: Yeah, we lost two fantastic fours and two great guys in Naz Reid and Julius Randle, so to get LaMelo, obviously we had to give up a lot. We felt like we had some really good internal solutions. But, specifically with Jonathan, when we started the process, quite frankly, we weren’t too optimistic. We thought he’d be a perfect fit, not just with his age and athleticism, but his two-way ability and how much winning he’s seen. He’s been in 40 playoff games, a near 60% winning percentage, and that’s important to us. Then we were fortunate that what we were talking about was shared by Aaron and Jonathan and his team and they saw the same vision. We think we have a versatile group of guys. Our coaching staff is one of the best in the league. They do a great job of not pigeonholing guys into one or two positions. He’s just a forward. He can play up, he can play down. But I think, collectively, his addition to our group is perfect. We think he’s going to have advantages on the other end with his quickness and his ability to slash. There aren’t many better one-dribble drive guys in the league than Jonathan, so we got lucky that Jonathan chose us and we’re excited to see what this team looks like in a month.
**On what Kuminga hopes to show in another contract year …**
JK: I wouldn’t say it’s about believing. I think it’s just being a winner. Trying to contribute every single day. Giving all I’ve got for this team, for the city, for the fans. It’s nothing really I’ve got to come and prove to certain people. As long as I come here every day and I’m a winner, a good teammate and a good person, everything will take care of itself. So I don’t need to do things that I haven’t done before. So I don’t think that’s my purpose or what I’m looking forward to. It’s just trying to win, and I think that’s about it.
**On if Minnesota can be a long-term destination for Kuminga …**
JK: I would love it to be a long-term thing. I’m not going to predict it, what it’s going to be. I think God has a plan for all of us. All I’ve got to do is just come here and do my job every single day and the rest of the things will handle themselves.
**On how Tim Connelly handled the silent period during Kuminga’s recruitment …**
TC: “Yeah, we were super excited. I mean, you see the player, but in these processes – I’m sure Jonathan did the same with his team – you do a lot of backgrounding. You talk to teammates and coaches, and what was consistent was how well thought-of Jonathan was by his teammates and his work ethic, all these things that we really can’t control, right? There’s no teaching that. So you get excited about the talent and then when you dig in deeper and you hear about the person, you get really excited. And then you don’t hear for awhile and you get kind of bummed out. So we were excited. Hopefully the excitement is shared by JK and his crew, but it just seems like serendipity. It seems like the right time, right place. We’re a team that needs what he brings both on and off the court, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. What we’ve told him from the first time we sat down was this is about having fun, enjoying yourself. He’s produced every year. He’s won every year. His first five years have been fantastic, and hopefully his sixth is the best one yet.”
**On how much Minnesota’s want to sign Kuminga played into his decision …**
JK: “I think me and Melo and Ant spoke pretty much every day, especially Ant. He called me every single time. He checked up on me, and he was a very, very genuine person. He didn’t have to do that. That just shows how much he wants to bring me over here, and then you’ve got these two guys, Tim and Alonzo, coming to Miami and checking up on me. We had some great conversations. It wasn’t just about basketball. It’s about kids, life, things that you couldn’t even think about – fishing, stuff like that. I think just – I wouldn’t say recruitment – them wanting me to be here, it felt real, and they were very genuine people, and these are people you could sit down with and have a conversation, because a lot of people you can’t sit down with and have an actual conversation with about certain things, and I think that’s when I felt the vibe – including Ant. Me and him sat on the phone and spoke about certain things, and that just made me feel very comfortable, and I think making a decision was very easy after talking to Alonzo and Tim and the rest of the guys, yes sir.”
**On how Kuminga fits into Minnesota’s current roster mold re: age and point of career…**
TC: “I think one of the challenges that we’re going to test these guys with – and I know they’re ready for it – is we lost a lot of good vets this offseason in Mike Conley, and Kyle and Joe Ingles, and we’re starting to look at the composition of our roster. These guys are young in age, but they’re not young in playing experience so we’re going to ask them to take on more responsibility. I think leaders is probably an overused word, but they are the vets. Despite being 23, 24, 25, he’s seen so much serious basketball. I think that’s something that he’s ready for, and I think it’s something Ant’s ready for, Melo’s ready for it, Jaden. Sometimes you look around and the leaders are in the mirror and not in other parts of the locker room. So I think while we’re young in age – I think we’re going to have one of the youngest starting lineups in the Western Conference – I don’t think we’re young in experience. There’s not a lot of teams that boast the amount of playoff experience that he’s seen or Ant’s seen or Jaden’s seen, so I think it’s time for these guys. They’re already grown up. I think it’s time for them to take even more responsibility of how the team plays on a day-to-day basis.”
**On Kuminga’s thoughts on Wolves fans …**
KUMINGA: “Ah, I played here so many times and just seeing the crowd, the fans, I think they have one of the best fans in the NBA. And I think they bring it every single day, and I’m excited. I can’t wait to see.”
**On why Kuminga chose the Wolves’ offer over more money elsewhere …**
KUMINGA: “Speaking of my family, I left everything to God. I prayed over this, asked God to guide me and give me the best decision, and I think this was the best decision for me. And I just wanted to go to a winning culture, and I think this was one of the best winning cultures I could’ve chose out of all the options. Like I said earlier, I spoke to so many people on this team, including the front office, the coaches, some of the players, and the vibe was just the type of vibe that I was looking for, and I think that made me make this decision even way easier, and I just went with it.”